The life-savers’ work is not over when the crew of a vessel is saved, for the apparatus must be packed on the beach wagon and returned to the station, while the shipwrecked crew is provided with dry clothing, fed, and cared for.  The patrol continues on his beat throughout the night without regard to the hardships that have already been undergone.

The success of the surfmen in saving lives depends not only on their courage and strength, supplemented by continuous training which has been proved time and again, but the wonderful record of the life-saving service is due as well to the efficient appliances that make the work of the men effective.

Besides the apparatus already described, each station is provided with a kind of boat-car which has a capacity for six or seven persons, and is built so that its passengers are entirely enclosed, the hatch by which they enter being clamped down from the inside.  When there are a great many people to be saved, this car is used in place of the breeches-buoy.  It is hung on the hawser by rings at either end and pulled back and forth by the whip-line; or, if the masts of the vessel are carried away and there is nothing to which the heavy rope can be attached so that it will stretch clear above the wave-crests, in such an emergency the life-car floats directly on the water, and the whip-line is used to pull it to the shore with wrecked passengers and back to the wreck for more.

Everything that would help to save life under any condition is provided, and a number of appliances are duplicated in case one or more should be lost or damaged at a critical time.  Signal flags are supplied, and the surfmen are taught their use as a means of communicating with people aboard a vessel in distress.  Telephones connect the stations, so that in case of any special difficulty two or even three crews may be combined.  When wireless telegraphy comes into general use aboard ship the stations will doubtless be equipped with this apparatus also, so that ships may be warned of danger.

[Illustration:  LIFE-SAVERS AT WORK The two men in the center are burying the sand-anchor; of the two at the right, one is ready with the crotch support the hawser and the other carries the breeches-buoy; the other three men are hauling the line which has already been shot over the wrecked vessel.]

The 10,000 miles of the United States ocean, gulf, and Great Lakes coasts, exclusive of Alaska and the island possessions, are guarded by 265 stations and houses of refuge at this writing, and new ones are added every year.  Practically all of this immense coast-line is patrolled or watched over during eight or nine stormy months, and those that “go down to the sea in ships” may be sure of a helping hand in time of trouble.

The dangerous coasts are more thickly studded with stations, and the sections that are comparatively free from life-endangering reefs are provided with refuge houses where supplies are stored and where wrecked survivors may find shelter.